At the Kalaupapa airport, May 10, to mark the 150th anniversary of Father Damien’s arrival in Kalaupapa are, from left, Dr. Maria L.V. Devera of the Joseph Dutton Guild, Giao Ho and Vien Ho of Oahu’s Vietnamese Catholic Community, Sister of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities Barbara Jean Wajda, Bishop Larry Silva, Sacred Hearts Father Edward Popish, Sacred Hearts Sister Helene Wood, Sacred Hearts Father Patrick Killilea, Sister of St. Francis Alicia Damien Lau. Sisters Barbara Jean and Alicia Damien work in Kalaupapa and Father Killilea is the pastor of St. Francis Parish, Kalaupapa. (Courtesy photo)
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The diocese commemorated the 150th anniversary of St. Damien’s historic arrival to Kalaupapa on May 10, 1873, with three days of activities remembering the Belgian missionary’s supreme sacrifice.
May 10 is also Father Damien’s liturgical feast day.
On that day, a century and a half ago, at age 33, Father Damien de Veuster, accompanied by Bishop Louis Maigret, stepped off the ship Kilauea onto Kalawao, the Kalaupapa peninsula’s northeast settlement, to begin what would turn out to be a permanent assignment.
This past May 9, Bishop Larry Silva was at St. Anthony Church in Wailuku, Maui, leading an evening prayer service where his predecessor, Bishop Louis Maigret, 150 years earlier had gathered his priests to bless the new Wailuku church and recruit four volunteers to share a grim revolving assignment ministering to the abandoned residents of Kalaupapa, who all were dying of a horrible disfiguring disease.
Students from St. Patrick School dance a hula in honor of St. Damien at the State Capitol, May 10. (Photo courtesy of Dann Ebina)
The next morning, Bishop Silva continued the 150th-anniversary commemoration at St. Anthony Church with a Mass.
Father Damien was the first of the four priests to sign up for the rotating two-week duty. However, after assessing the situation, Damien volunteered to stay permanently.
Father Damien remained with his new flock for 16 years, bringing dignity and respect to the settlement, until his own death from leprosy in 1889.
On May 10, Catholic school children from Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Pearl City, Damien Memorial School in Kalihi and St. Patrick School in Kaimuki assembled around Mirasol Escobar’s statue of St. Damien that stands in front of the Hawaii state Capitol. They placed flowers, sang hymns, recited prayers and danced the hula commemorating the man of honor.
That evening Bishop Silva celebrated Mass in the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace where a glass cube containing a first-class relic of the saint, his heelbone*, was on display to gaze upon, touch and venerate.
The next day, May 11, Bishop Larry Silva retraced the saint’s path to Kalaupapa, this time stepping off a Mokulele Airline’s plane with five other pilgrims to celebrate the sesquicentennial with Mass in the church the saint built, St. Philomena.
*The relic bone was misidentified as a heelbone. It is actually an ankle bone.
